GOD'S AMAZING LOVE FOR US
After Jesus was resurrected from the tomb, he appeared to his disciples. He had to go through a closed door to see them because they were hiding in fear. Even so, he said to them, "Peace be with you. Then he said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21). To strengthen them, he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." However, they didn't go out. Instead, the disciple Thomas showed up a day or so later and demanded to see proof that Jesus had risen from the dead.
As Thomas was raising his issues and doubts, Jesus appeared to them again, saying, "Peace be with you...Do not doubt but believe" (20:26-27). Still, they didn't go out to share the gospel. They were still afraid of the same people who had recently crucified Jesus. Instilled in this fear, Peter said, "I am going fishing," and a few of the other disciples said, "We will go with you" (21:3). Rather than being the "fishers of men" that they had been called to be, they went back to business as usual.
It's OK to go fishing, and it was necessary for these disciples to go back to work, but we cannot neglect to obey God's call on our life either. Again, Jesus appeared to his disciples, from a shoreline this time. According to their own plans, and by depending only on their own human strength, the disciples had caught nothing all night. Jesus called out across the water to them and said, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat and you will find some" (21:6). They obeyed his voice, and suddenly their net was full of fish. It was at this point they they realized it was Jesus on that shoreline, because they remembered that every perfect command comes from him. What makes his commands perfect? Because the power of God is in his commands. When he said, "Let there be light," there was light.
Dragging their net alongside their boat, the disciples returned to the shore to find Jesus cooking breakfast for them. They had not known that he was present on that shoreline, nor did they know that he was bringing a large provision of fish under the right side of their boat. They also did not know that he was cooking them breakfast. How true it is that we oftentimes don't see Jesus in our midst, and we don't see what he is doing for us? He is standing right in front of us, and yet we tend to look everywhere but at him for answers to our problems. Like Pilate, we may ask what the truth is to questions in life, but then turn to listen to what other people have to say instead. The truth Pilate didn't hear was Jesus, the One who is truth.
As Jesus served them "the Lord's Breakfast," he spoke with them as one speaking to friend, despite the fact that they had denied him, abandoned him, and now could not bring themselves to do what he had called them to do. He didn't scold them and he didn't say to Peter, "You know, you really let me down. I thought I was going to be able to depend on you more than this." He could have said that, but he didn't. Instead, Jesus focused only on that bond of love that God wants to have with each one of us. He simply asked Peter, "Do you love me more than these?" More than what? More than anything else.
Are we willing to respond to God and love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, because he first loved us? It's not a matter of "will" we do that. It's a matter of being "willing" to do that, by not using our own efforts to say, "No, I cannot do that." After all, God's word reminds us that "it is God working in you, both to will and to work, according to his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). He is the One who is able to make us both willing and able to follow him completely. We do not have to self-will ourselves to do this for him. He does it through us, as we trust him to. We love him, because he first loves us. Again, God's grace to obey the commandment is in the command itself.
When you and I were born, and God said, "Live!" we began breathing the life he gave to us. The power to live was in the command to live. When he commanded the laws of the universe into existence, gravity did what he commanded it to do, and everything was drawn together in its proper place over time. In the same way, we can love God with our whole being, as long as we don't erect a false god idol to take his place in our heart. Misdirecting pride in self, rather than keeping our pride in Christ, is how we can end up pushing God into the background. There is no self-effort in keeping our eyes on Jesus, because God gives us the grace to do that. We were created for his glory.
After all that the disciples had gone through with Jesus for the past three years, Christ's love for them is ultimately what mattered most. We tend to forget that we are loved and accepted by him, especially after failing him in one way or other. If I neglected my wife, the way I have oftentimes neglected God, I can just imagine how my relationship with her would be affected. When we neglect God, and forget what a friend he can be to us, we grieve his heart. Just read the book of Hosea to see how God is affected by our neglect of him. He describes through his prophet that his feelings for his people are all over the place. He says how badly his heart is torn, between being hurt and upset with them, to wanting to have compassion on them.
Having a grasp on doctrine and theology goes only so far, but when I'm faced with something very difficult, where my faith in God is being severely tested, I need to know more than anything else that his love is unfailing love. When I return to him after wrongly abandoning him for awhile, I need to know that he has not completely abandoned me. I need to know that he is still faithful to me, even when I have not been faithful to him. It sounds so very one-sided, but that is the picture Jesus wants us to see of him, as we read about that breakfast on that shoreline.
